26. Auburn

Rivals says: Utah

I say........

26. Auburn Tigers

Last year Auburn took some major strides forward in the SEC West, going 8-5, and getting a bowl win over Northwestern. The record is not much of an improvement over recent season, but they were considerably better against big teams than in 2008. A year after getting destroyed by archrival Alabama 30-0, the Tigers came just minutes away from beating the Tide. They also stayed close to LSU and Georgia. You probably haven't heard much about Auburn, with division rivals Alabama and LSU getting their usual pre-season hype, and Arkansas being talked up as a dark horse. If you want a ture dark horse look no further than Auburn.

On offense, the Tigers are inexperienced at the most talked about positions: QB and RB, and will be plugging in new starters at both spots. This is no reason to be down on them, the offensive line returns 108 career starts, and should be the best in the SEC. The new starters at WB and RB are getting a lot of chatter and head coach Gene Chizik seems to think the offense will not miss a beat on account of either. The recievers will be fine, so if the new starters behind center are as good as Chizik says, there is no reason to believe the offense can't be as dangerous as it was a year ago.

The defense was the problem a year ago, especially against the run, but with nine skilled starters coming back they should be okay. The Tigers have brought in some outstanding talent over the last few years, it just hasn't clicked on this side of the ball yet. If it does this year (and it very well could) the Tigers will be in the BCS mix. The entire season's success will ocme down to how tough Aubrun can be against the run, which looks to be the preferred mode of attack for a good number of SEC powerhouses this season.

The schedule is as favorable as any SEC team could ask for. There are three easy games out of conference against Sun Belt, C-USA, and FCS teams. Clemson, South Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, and LSU will all travel to Jordan-Hare Stadium, and Florida and Tennessee are not on the schedule at all. The one bum road game is of course at Alabama, but the fact is that Auburn probably won't be good enough to beat the Tide anyways.

The schedule says BCS, but the talent says third SEC West, if the Tigers get lucky they just might be able to surprise some of the bullies in the SEC though.